Biology

Physiology

Palkia looks dinosaur-like, similar to Dialga, though it seems to be based on a theropod, the bipedal carnivorous dinosaurs. Palkia’s body is mainly a shade of light purple, although it has stripes and markings of a darker shade and a grayish-colored arm underside and waist. It has round purple-striped plates on its shoulder area, where two pink pearls lie encrusted with a gray rim encircling them and fins in their back. Palkia’s arms have somewhat gauntlet-like extended formations and a purple band of coloration at the wrist. Palkia has a long neck, a pointed white crest on the top of its head that extends to its wings, two strong horn-like tusks on the sides of its jaw, and a powerful tail.

Gender differences

Palkia is a genderless species.

Special abilities

Palkia has the ability to warp space. An example of this was shown in Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia, in which Palkia was able to shuffle the landscape of Almia around at a whim, allowing doors to connect to places miles away and for large forests to fit inside tiny houses. In Pokémon Pearl Version, it is mentioned on the statue in Eterna City that it can create alternate realities.

Palkia's skills in battle are mostly the same as Dialga's, except that Palkia can learn a handful of Template:Type2 moves. Palkia is also slightly faster than Dialga and has weaker defensive stats. Palkia is one of the rare species that knows the move Aura Sphere.

Behavior

Like Dialga, Palkia lives in a different dimension, making its behavior nearly impossible to study. However, Palkia has been seen in violent conflicts with Dialga. It as well has been shown to be very protective of its home.

Habitat

Legends say that it lives "in a gap in the spatial dimension parallel to ours." The twelfth movie shows Palkia living in a pink-colored dimension containing floating pearls.

Arceus and the Jewel of Life manga

In the Arceus and the Jewel of Life manga adaptation, Palkia, along with the members of its trio, was summoned by Sheena to help Ash and his friends. Palkia soon engaged in a battle with the other members of its trio along with Arceus.

In the TCG

Other appearances

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Palkia occasionally appears on the Spear Pillar stage as one of three Pokémon that controls it. It only appears on the stage when the ground on the upper levels have a purple tinge to them. Unlike Dialga and Cresselia, it'll use its powers to distort the stage however possible. Some examples include tilting the stage, turning the stage completely upside down and reversing the screen itself (the last two will cause the movement controls to be reversed temporarily). It often shoot beams in the cave below, dealing a lot of damage to the players that get caught in the blast.

Pokémon Ranger: Shadows of Almia: Palkia appears as a bonus boss during one of the Ranger Net extra missions. Palkia was injured from a battle with Dialga and entered Hippowdon Temple. In its pain, it warped the space of the Almia region and caused all of the locations of Almia to be shuffled together.

Trivia

Palkia is tied with Rayquaza, Dialga, Reshiram, Zekrom and Giratina for highest base single stat of all Dragon-type Pokémon. Giratina has 150 in HP, while Dialga, Palkia, Reshiram and Rayquaza have 150 in Special Attack. Rayquaza and Zekrom have 150 in Attack. Coincidentally they are all also tied for highest base stat total of all Dragon-types with 680.

Oddly, Palkia learns Aqua Tail two times: at level 24 and again at level 42.

Palkia is the only member of the Creation trio not to have an immunity.

Origin

Palkia, along with Dialga, may be based on the Shinto legend of Izanami and Izanagi, who are said to have created one island with a spear, erected a pillar on it, and from there created the islands of Japan. Appearance-wise, Palkia is likely based after a European dragon combined with a pearl. The presence of fins in their back, the fish-like head and the pearls are possibly the reason for its Water type.

Name origin

The Pal (Paru) in its name is derived from the Japanese word for pearl, パール pāru.